How to Become an Impact Player – New Book Review

At CloseCohen we like to see our senior-level clients to create value for those around them. When you are creating value, you increase your influence and find yourself tapped for leadership opportunities more readily, which we love to see. Liz Wiseman’s newest book is all about how to be one of these “impact players”—the clutch players who can be counted on to step up and lead. 

Impact Players covers 2 foundational skills that happen to also be core themes in our executive coaching practice:

1. Change Your Perspective

Impact Players train themselves to zoom out, away from their tried-and-true frameworks, and consider other points of view so that they can think differently. 

Tip: Challenge yourself to think differently even when things are working well. 

These individuals always ask themselves: What is most valuable to my stakeholders? Impact players recognize that understanding what is valuable to others means they can identify how, where, and when to step up before even a specific request to take action arrives. The outcome is often that you are seen as “high potential” and tapped for more leadership and responsibilities.

There are many ways to broaden your vision beyond your reflexive way of seeing a situation. One of the most underutilized skills is listening longer. Listen, be curious, look for persistent problems, and be open to new information. 

Wiseman offers tactical ideas to implement as you cultivate your ‘listening longer’ skills and widen your perspective: attend a meeting you don’t normally go to, connect with a customer, use your own product, or cover for someone while they’re on vacation. 

Greater intentionality and focus help you uncover where and how you can make an impact.

2. Change Your Lens

Wiseman’s research found that the impact player mindset sees opportunity rather than threat when faced with ambiguity and uncertainty. Rather than freezing when faced with the threat of chaos, impact players embrace the situation, search for, and focus on the opportunity to add value. 

Tip: Even when upset or overwhelmed by a challenging work scenario, search for and ask yourself to focus on the opportunity to add value. You can guide your mind to focus on opportunity by journaling and thinking about the focus area daily, for a short time every day until it feels easy to see the opportunity to add value.

Your mindset shapes how you make sense of a situation and influences how you think, feel, and behave.

Strong leaders create a stable environment for their teams by managing ambiguity. 

Leaders who are impact players demonstrate comfort with uncertainty by adopting the opportunity lens when faced with unknowns. This ability to reframe is a key differentiator for impact players, our clients who gain promotions, and for the overall joy and mental health of our clients when they are faced with unavoidable challenges in the work environment.

Experiment with changing your perspective and changing your lens by testing your assumptions and collecting evidence, just like you would A/B test messaging or use cases for your products. 

As you uncover opportunities to create value for your stakeholders, never miss a chance to ensure that others see the impact of your contribution. Wiseman points out:

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Similarly, we might ask: If someone makes an important contribution and no one notices, was the contribution valuable? Perhaps, but value must be both received and perceived by the customer or stakeholder.

Help others see the value of your work—let them know what you’ve done to make their work easier, do more than is expected of you, build champions, innovate, and share. When you promote the work you’ve done, people will take notice of your impact. 

Ready to strengthen your voice, increase your influence, and create value for those around you? It’s an incredibly enjoyable way to raise your profile at work. Contact us to book your executive coaching session.